"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."
Mother Teresa

Waiting for our baby girl

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Ethiopia Day 1

Okay, I am terrible at blogging. It's not that I don't think of it occasionally, usually composing posts as I drift off to sleep... but we are hard pressed to do much more than get through the day every day! The past three months (can't believe Lilia has been home three months!!) have been hard and beautiful. Very hard. And very beautiful. It is amazing to watch our newest daughter, a former orphan, come alive. This has involved much pain to see her hurt and fears surface but glorious to see her begin to heal. I'll tell more about that in another post. For now, I want to catch us up to speed. We'll start with Ethiopia. I am going to post parts of our travel journal and some pictures of our time there.

May 18, 2010

We arrived in Addis Ababa last night at around 7:00 pm. It was a long trip, but Emma was a rock star traveler. We’re so proud of her. We crashed at about 9:00 pm and slept all night until 7:00 am this morning. Sleep felt great! We had a great breakfast this morning, and then got unpacked a bit and played. David, our driver, and Robel , our AWAA travel coordinator, came and picked us up at 12:30 pm for lunch. We ate pizza. It was really good. We’d heard they had good Italian food here, because of the Italian occupation. Well, it was really good. After that, we headed to the transition home. That’s really where we wanted to be all day.

When we got there, they found out who we were and said they would get Yabsira. So we waited outside at the front. What a crazy feeling, waiting for them to bring our daughter…Katie, Emma and I were all looking at each other, anticipating the moment…nervous, excited, almost crying, etc. When they finally brought her out, it was surprising that no tears were present. But joy overtook the moment and we were all just completely excited! Emma gave her hugs and kisses, Katie held her, I looked on and took pictures, then we all sat down together. What joy! Katie fed her a bottle and she just slurped it down without wasting any time at all. I guess when you start out that small, you don’t mess around when there is food present. Both Katie and I could have stayed there all day – staring into her eyes, feeding her, holding her, just being together. It’s been so long. We spent two hours together, and of course didn’t want to leave. But Emma had been such a trooper all day, and we can’t take Lilia home yet, so we left. She’s in a great place. The transition home is beautiful, and the people are so kind and great with the kids. Lilia has been in good hands.

Tonight, Emma fell asleep at dinner. One second she was chowing on pasta, the next she was asleep on Katie’s lap. I’m not joking either. I think she fell asleep in the course of 30 seconds. What a day. Well, we’re all heading for bed soon. Sweet dreams for us!

As a final note, we love Addis, and all the people we’ve met. The people of this country seem to be so proud of their place and all its history. Not a tourist kind of proud, but a deep rooted pride in being from this place. The people here also seem to have a deep love for children. We saw it over and over again. It’s such a beautiful thing, considering that children are often overlooked or treated as inconveniences in our country. We can’t wait to learn more about where our daughter is from.

Our bags

Dulles Airport (note how rested we looked then)

On the airplane- two 8 hour flights

Outside the Transition Home,

waiting for Lilia to be brought out so we could meet her for the first time!

Oh yay! What a beautiful thing! I can't imagine the feeling of finally being there and getting to hold Lilia! How incredible, what a picture of how God comes and gets us even when we don't know we need Him. hmm. i just love it! and miss you guys! hope to see you soon!

Congratulations on the new addition!! My wife and I are foster parents and are hoping to adopt in the next couple of months as well! I fell into a copy of your cd some time ago.. but have lost the mp3s.. I'm desperate to get another copy!! Is it possible to pay for one somewhere?